How To Edit Text in a Vector File

June 10, 2019

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Editing text in a Vector File can be an easy task for designers, and a daunting one for a person who is not so familiar with Design applications. And since most Designers and Non Designers prefer to download files from Vector Stock Agencies such as Vectorfresh or Free Vector websites for their projects, learning to edit text in a Vector File can save you time and frustration. If you don't know how to edit vector files in Photoshop read on here. You can also check out some Alternatives to Adobe Illustrator to edit text in your vector files!

On some occasions, the creator of the Graphic may have used a font which may not be present on your computer and to add to the problem the Designer may not have mentioned the font family used in the Vector file.

In some cases, it’s impossible to edit the text like we usually do within a word editing software, as some Graphic Designers convert the text to shape, outlines or paths, before contributing their designs to Stock Agencies or Free Vector Stock sites for downloading. Especially if you download the EPS file (here is how to open EPS files) you might end up having only the outlines.

With all these troubles, it is quiet easy for a novice to get confused.

First, let’s get the basics of editing text in a vector file out of our way, after which we shall explore ways to tackle the other problems that exist.

Finding the perfect vector

Usually, the files which are downloaded from Vector Stock websites or Free Vector websites are offered either in an AI format (Adobe Illustrator) or as an EPS file (Encapsulated Postscript). You may edit these downloaded Vector Files in Vector applications such as Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw or Inkscape. But hey, you can still buy cheap vector graphics here, if you don't want to do it yourself. Sites like Vectorfresh are a great resource, and they are currently running an early bird offer on their year subscription, here are some of their main benefits:

1 Year of Full Access to the entire Vectorfresh library for only $49, thats a huge saving of 55%(down from the usual price of $109)

Text templates in every Vector, all downloadable in .EPS format!

1,200 images of your choice per year with no daily download limits! (Up to 100 Vectors per month)

Full access to a hand curated library of over 1 million vectors with 10,000+ added every month!

Next, I shall walk you through the entire process to edit text in a Vector file using Adobe Illustrator.

How to Edit Text in a Vector File!

Editing text in a vector file can be a fairly simple process once you know how to, and with our simple step by step tutorial below, your sure to pick up the skills you require in no time, however, why do it yourself?

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A step by step tutorial to edit text in a Vector file using Adobe Illustrator.

Step 1

Open the downloaded EPS or AI file in Illustrator. Go to the File menu and click on Open. Browse to the file location, select the AI or EPS file and click Open. With the vector file now open in your application, let’s go ahead and begin editing the text rightaway.

Step 2

Let’s ungroup the graphics in the file for easier editing. Choose the Selection Tool from the toolbar and Click on the graphic to select it. Go to Object Menu and choose Ungroup from the drop down. Please note that the text could be edited without ungrouping, but ungrouping makes your work easier.

Ungroup the text elements further using the same step so that each text block can be selected separately.

Step 3

Now you may begin editing the text. Choose the Type Tool from the Toolbar and click on the text or select the text that you want to replace, and begin typing your content.

Next, let’s see how to change font properties.

Step 4.a

To change the font properties, use the selection tool and select the text you want to alter. The property bar located below the menu bar now shows the font options. With the text selected, change the properties you wish to change. You may change the color, the font family, the font style, font size, paragraph alignment and opacity.

For more fine control, you may use the Character and the Paragraph Panel which offer more options.

Step 4.b

Open the Character panel. Go to Window menu, then to Type and chooseCharacter. You may also find the panel in the panel flyout to the right of the workspace. You can also click on the word ‘Character’ in the property bar to open the panel.

Let’s explore the options the Character panel has to offer. Keep the block of text or characters selected while altering its character options.

Font Family: Change the Font-family such as Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman etc.

Font Style: Changes styles such as Regular, Bold, Italics etc. Some font family may have more options present than others, while some may have just have Regular.

Leading: You can choose the distance between two or more lines of text.

Kerning: You can choose the distance between any two characters. Use the text tool or double click between the characters before changing the kerning.

Tracking: This option is used to change the distance between selected characters or the entire selected block of text.

Horizontal Scale: This option scales the text horizontally. Use this option sparingly as it may alter the shapes of characters.

Vertical Scale: This option scales the text vertically. Use it sparingly like the option above.

Baseline Shift: Used to move selected character or characters, up or down from its original baseline.

Character Rotation: Rotates the each character around its own axis.

Underline: For underlining block of text or selected characters.

Strikethrough: Used to strikethrough block of text or selected characters.

More options for characters can be accessed from the Characters panels dropdown located in the top-right corner of the panel. These options are All Caps, Small Caps, Superscript and Subscript.

Step 4.c

Open the Character panel. Go to Window menu, then to Type and chooseParagraphs. You may also find the panel in the panel flyout to the right of the workspace. You can also click on the word ‘Paragraph’ in the property bar to open the panel.

Select the block of text or paragraph you wish to apply the option to before choosing the options from the Paragraph Panel.

Align: You may align the text to the left, center, right or justify. Justify also has more options which determine how the last line is aligned. You may choose the last line to align to the left, center, right or force it to spread across the entire line from end to end.

Left Indent: Indents the entire block of text or the entire paragraph from the left.

Right Indent: Indents the entire block of text or the entire paragraph from the right.

First-Line Left Indent: Use this option to indent the first line of the selected paragraph or all the paragraphs within the selected block.

Space before paragraph: Used to add space between paragraphs. Adds space before the selected paragraph.

Space after paragraph: Adds space after the selected paragraph.

Hyphenate: This option automatically adds hyphens to maintain a small degree of consistent horizontal spaces.

That’s all there’s to editing text in vector file using Illustrator.

Now that we have the basics out of the way, let’s get to the second part of the problem.

Can you edit text which is converted to shape, outline or path?

No, You cannot edit the text after it is converted to shape, outline or path. But, you may replace the existing text graphic with a new block of text.

Even if you plan to replace the graphic with text, sometimes it may be difficult to identify the font-family used in the vector file. We shall briefly discuss two resources which may help you to identify the font-family used by the creator of the Vector file so that you can use the same font-family for your text.

This is a powerful application that helps you find the font family of the text graphic in your vector file. You may submit a part of the text in a PNG, GIF or a JPEG format and the application shows you font families that are similar to the one in your image.

WhatTheFont also hosts a forum where font enthusiasts help you identify the font in your image.

This is a similar service, but with additional features to help identify the font family used in your Vector file. You may submit an image of the font in a PNG, GIF or a JPEG format and the software returns 100 fonts options similar to the one you submitted.

You can also choose the results to display free fonts, commercial fonts, or both.

After identifying the font, you can choose to download or purchase the font if it’s not installed on your computer.

I hope you got all the help you need to edit text in Vector File. Remember to share this valuable info with fellow designers and also to subscribe to our newsletter so that we can keep you posted on more interesting and helpful stuff in Vectors.